My iMac wont boot up past apple logo

[dejjisch]

Hey there, I'm new to this forums and hopefully I can get help or any kind of direction help of what the problem might be...

Here are some specs on it if you want to know:

iMac 20"
2,4 ghz intel core 2 duo
320gb HDD
3gb RAM-memory
Model identifier: 7,1

Well first off, my iMac dead feels like my heart stopped beating, it feels really really bad... I hate that this is happening!

Anyways, this Friday a lagg just came out of nowhere and the computer was reacting amazingly slow so I turned it off and after I tried starting it up it came to the apple logo with the white background and the spinning wheel below which didnt come anywhere it as a matter of fact just kept spinning and after a while it reeboted it self and did the same procedure again, and again and again...


I've tried removing all cables, USB's and such from it and booting, but still the same problem...

I've resetted the PRAM memory and still the same problem...

I also held the powerbutton and removed the power cable and put the power cable in again which made it sound like an aeroplane, but still the same thing...

I've tried in disk utility to repair the disk but no problems seemed to be found,
so still the same thing at boot...

THEN I erased the whole internal harddrive with its info and installed Mac os X to it, I saw this as a last resort btu luckily I had everything saved on a external harddrive so I installed everything back and everythnig was working good with it booting up and working as it was before...

Everything worked untill yesterday evening (Sunday). so 1 full day it worked...

Untill... as in the same very beginning it started to LAGG, and a message came up on the screen after maybe 30 minutes that I needed to restart it...

I then knew something was gonna happen as it did before, and it DID!
It wouldnt start after that, again... Exacly the same problem, it was stuck on the apple logo with the spinning wheel...

Tried reeboting maybe 100 times, the same problem is as it is...



Right now I'm at the moment where I re-erased the internal hard drive and installed mac os X again, where its not working again fine.


BUT I suspect this will happen again and again and again if it happened 2 in such a short notice...

SO...

DOES anyone here know what the problem might be?

Could it be the internal hard drive?
Should I buy a new one?
It's not the easiest to put it in either hmm...

and btw does anyone know what kind of harddrive is in there? 3,5" or 2,5"?
Which brand? IF Western Digital and probably other brands too, shouldnt they have
like 3-5 year waranty? and if so, how do I let them know that they need to hand
me one over, because it sucks...?

What else could be the problem for this?
The motherboard? will cost me more than a new one I suspect...

Should I just throw it to hell and claim a new one on insurance?
Because thats what I feel to do...

Seriously, a computer I had for 2 years arent supposed to **** up this much
after such a short time... :/

I have no idea what to do, please give me advice... what could be the problem here...

I'm sad.



edit: When I in friday tried seeing what the problem was in verbose mode, why it didnt start I remember seeing something with kernel_panic, what is this? and why is it prevented?

 

[Hellhammer]

Looks like a bad hard drive for me. Do you have warranty left?

I wouldn't smash it because breaking it in order to get a new one from insurance is a fraud. Also, it's not Apple's fault because Apple doesn't manufacture the hard drives they are using and basically hard drive can fail at any time. My Acer's HD had to be replaced twice in 8 months

Take a look at my attachment, there's a quick guide what should you do (you've done almost all)

 

[dejjisch]

Yeah I've done it all, even resetting the SMC...


So you think it is the hard drive that has ****ed up, it seems like that to me too, but question is why is it working? like now.

ATM I'm installing Leopard on it and it seems to be working just fine, why would it start lagging all of a sudden lets say... TOMOROW? and go through the same procedure again with the computer not being able to boot up... :/

And if it is the hard drive, shouldnt I get one by warranty? Where do I face to get one? Apple or the hard drive manufacturer?
I've heard there should be 3 year warranty for this in normal use which I have been doing...

 

[Hellhammer]

Yeah I've done it all, even resetting the SMC...


So you think it is the hard drive that has ****ed up, it seems like that to me too, but question is why is it working? like now.

ATM I'm installing Leopard on it and it seems to be working just fine, why would it start lagging all of a sudden lets say... TOMOROW? and go through the same procedure again with the computer not being able to boot up... :/

And if it is the hard drive, shouldnt I get one by warranty? Where do I face to get one? Apple or the hard drive manufacturer?
I've heard there should be 3 year warranty for this in normal use which I have been doing...

Unfortunately, you only get one year warranty as a standard but if you bought AppleCare you got 2 extra years giving the total of 3 years.

Looks like your hard drive is still working somehow but its death is just around corner.

You can always contact to Apple and what should you do and they can fix it for money or at least indicate the problem

 

[dejjisch]

Yeah I only had 1 year warranty as you say.

But I've read that most hard drive manufactors such as WD has 3-5 year warranty, and if that case I suppose its them I need to contact...

Just wanted to see if anyone also did this and actually got one new hard drive back, I doubt tho, its probably a procedure of 10000 steps to get one.

This is really frustating.......

 

[Hellhammer]

Yeah I only had 1 year warranty as you say.

But I've read that most hard drive manufactors such as WD has 3-5 year warranty, and if that case I suppose its them I need to contact...

Just wanted to see if anyone also did this and actually got one new hard drive back, I doubt tho, its probably a procedure of 10000 steps to get one.

This is really frustating.......

Manufacturer warranties e.g. Western Digital's only work when you buy the hard drive separately, not when it's included in computer already (so unless you have the box and receipt for the hard drive you won't get new one for free). Also if you somehow get a new one from WD, you would still have to replace it yourself.

 

[dejjisch]

Manufacturer warranties e.g. Western Digital's only work when you buy the hard drive separately, not when it's included in computer already (so unless you have the box and receipt for the hard drive you won't get new one for free). Also if you somehow get a new one from WD, you would still have to replace it yourself.

Oh I see, that makes sense yeah... Thanks for clearing that up!
Question is why the hard drives give up after such a short time, like yours too for example... Getting too hot in there?

It's crazy expensive as it is with a Apple product, and with it also broking up isnt exacly the cheapest to repair...

I'll give a Apple service a call now to see what it would cost to replace with a new hard drive, but probably around 2,000 SEK I suppose which is really embarassing.

 

[Hellhammer]

Oh I see, that makes sense yeah... Thanks for clearing that up!
Question is why the hard drives give up after such a short time, like yours too for example... Getting too hot in there?

It's crazy expensive as it is with a Apple product, and with it also broking up isnt exacly the cheapest to repair...

I'll give a Apple service a call now to see what it would cost to replace with a new hard drive, but probably around 2,000 SEK I suppose which is really embarassing.

It's hard to say why but as hard drives have moving parts, mechanical failure will kill the hard drive sooner than later and of course the heat kills it even faster. You were just unlucky but thank God your logic board didn't fail, that would've cost you like 10 000 SEK. Give Apple a call and lets see what's the solution and its price

 

[dejjisch]

Hmm what he said was he thought it was most likely the hard drive, which we also seemed to agree on.

It would cost me around 1800 SEK as I suspected to fix it, with a new 320 GB hard drive and around 2000 SEK with a 500 GB hard drive...

But I'm standing on thinking, is it worth it? If it will be fixed I'm deffinately selling it and buying a new 21,5" iMac instead, I think.

What if it now will work, It does at the moment and I've installed OS X Leopard on it. Gah...


On another note I just did a Control on the disk in disk utility, it says the disk is free from faults.

Why cant the disk just be dead so I'm 100% sure it is the thing thats lurking the problem here...!!!


Wonder if anyone has had the same problem with the lagging all of a sudden which lead to,you had to reebot and it just wouldnt start up after this? Being stuck on the spinning wheel with the apple logo. And it later showed up it was the hard drive you had to fix?

 

[flarida]

Are you using the stock memory? I recently had the same kinds of issues with my 24" iMac and when I went back to the stock memory, it cleared up the problems.


Dan

 

[dejjisch]

Are you using the stock memory? I recently had the same kinds of issues with my 24" iMac and when I went back to the stock memory, it cleared up the problems.


Dan

I'm using 1 x1GB DDR2 667mhz from what was inside already and
1 x 2GB DDR2 667Mhz from what I bought when I first got her, like 2 years ago.

I'm not sure this is the problem, since it's been inside for so long time already and never showed any failure as this one...?


It is working perfectly now, for now.........
I'm atm doing updates on it through "program updating", but hell say please it wont do the LAGG and just give up again. I'm giving it one more chance then I'm handing it over to Apple to fix the problem (harddrive supposedly).

 

[flarida]

I'm using 1 x1GB DDR2 667mhz from what was inside already and
1 x 2GB DDR2 667Mhz from what I bought when I first got her, like 2 years ago.

I'm not sure this is the problem, since it's been inside for so long time already and never showed any failure as this one...?

Just something to maybe try before you end up spending more on a HD. My problems were very similar to yours and it's been completely stable since taking the aftermarket memory out. I mixed factory and aftermarket memory too, and mine also worked fine for a couple years before it started acting up. Again, may not help at all, but it only takes a few minutes to pop it out and try.

Good luck and I hope you get it back up and running smoothly!


Dan

 

[AppleFan360]

One simple thing you also might want to try is pulling the memory out and cleaning the contacts with an eraser. You may not even have to go that far. Simply re-seating the memory might do the trick.

 

[dejjisch]

falrida, Chris:

I'll try this now emmidiatly. THanks for helping out. Lets hope this may solve or make it not crash again...

So far it's been stable, but who knows... for how long! =)